Olga Maslikhova: 4 LATAM Founders Who Turned Chaos Into Moats

Olga Maslikhova, Founder and Host of The J Curve, breaks down what four Latin American founders did differently — Daniel Vogel (Bitso, $2.2B), Caique Carvalho (Gringo, $200M exit to Corpay), Tiago Dalvi (Olist, $10B GMV), and Piero Contezini (Asaas, 37 revenue streams). This is a strategic debrief on why the friction that makes emerging markets “too hard” is exactly what makes them defensible.We cover the infrastructure decision of when to build from scratch versus orchestrate what exists and why control beats features in volatile markets, the contrarian bet that won Mexico as Bitso ignored the entire crypto industry’s narrative and built the bridge instead, the tattoo marketplace that failed and what Caique learned about the difference between problems people tolerate and problems they’ll pay to eliminate, the pivot that required courage as Tiago offered to return investor money and what that decision revealed about founder clarity, distribution as product design and why Gringo built for WhatsApp first, the four-layer playbook behind how Asaas went from “help SMBs get paid” to 37 revenue streams, the M&A playbook behind Olist’s four-step integration strategy, and why 2,600 hours on taxes equals $185M raised — the value of inefficiency and why vertical SaaS works differently in Latin America than anywhere else.This is a masterclass in seeing opportunity where others see impossibility.Subscribe to The J Curve Insider ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for deeper insights and follow Olga on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.